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If you have been following my blog or my instagram account you maybe aware that I have been upgrading our sons room. Transforming my teens bedroom from a bright fun boys room, into a teen appropriate gamer theme hang out space. check out my plans here. Finally our teen boy bedroom transformation is complete.
It has been a few months planning, designing then breathing those designs with to life. When I say compete, are we ever really done creativily with a space? I’m still on the hunt for a mirror and two bedside tables but the main structure of the room is finished. So what have we done and what is left to do you ask? Join me on this blog to find out how I created my sons gamer room chill out space.
Creating the brief and making sure it could be adapted.
I wanted to create a space not just for the moment, but a room that would grow as he does. Although the brief from my first interior design client aka my son was a gamer theme. I ensured that as he grew into adult hood, the space could easily be adapted with little cost or disruption. I personally think this is important when it comes to your childrens bedroom. As we grow and learn, our habits, likes and dislikes can drastically change or differ. Not that I feel our son will ever grow out of gaming. I have a nearly 40 year old partner who has a WhatsApp group chat with his other 40 something year old mates designated to their playstation game tactics. lol.
I achieved this changeable space by keeping the theme quite muted. Using art work that could easily be switched out and the gamer led lighting wasn’t built in to the walls so it could always be remove with ease. The paint work is fairly neutral with one statement wall, which meant I don’t have to paint all four walls if his colour palette taste changes. What makes the gamer theme come alive can easily be changed.
I used this awesome playstation art [ad] I found on esty[ad] and placed in the large frame [ad] from John Lewis
If your creating a theme bedroom this could be a good tip to practice. keep the theme relatively to things that can easily and cheaply switched. For example cushion covers, artwork, bedding or curtains. Try and keep the big expensive items like furniture or carpets neutral from the theme.
Paint colours
As I said above I wanted I went with a dark feature wall, to be the back drop for the tv wall. As it is a small space that sits north of the house I didn’t want to paint all 4 walls dark as this would only make the room feel smaller. so I opted to keep the room neutral but with a dark feature wall. Farrow&ball hauge blue [ad]was my colour of choice, I couldn’t be more pleased with how it teams nicely with the bright neutral walls. It’s such a traditional classic and the strong blue works wonderfully as an accent colour on the wall. The green undertones of this timeless, deep and dramatic blue means it sits as happily in small dark rooms. Televisions look Amaing amazingsnt a darker againk drop making the screens picture really sing perfect for rooms and gamer rooms alike.
The lights
In every bedroom it is important to create good lighting. It creates mood and ambiance. And apart from the obvious having a gaming console in a room makes it a games room, lighting is paticulary an important element when it comes to gaming and bringing the theme to life. I am no gamer, however I do know this. Smart lighting makes your video games come alive. Smart bulbs and light strips, can be synced up to gaming rig to deliver a truly immersive experience. Many smart lights also have multiple colour setting allowing you to Taylor the lighting scheme for different games. Some can link with your smart phone and dance with music you’re playing! The only thing they can not do, is put your teens washing in the wash basket. – Maybe in the future hey?
We purchased the Smart TV Backlight USB Led Strip Lights.[ad] With Remote Control and the ability to Sync to Music they are brilliant. The sticky strips was easy to attach to the ceiling and behind the tv. The impressive part of the light strips is the popular music sync feature, allowing the lights to flicker and flash along with your tunes. They even flicker with the timings of the game you are playing on your game console. Which is pretty epic. If you want to be wakened from the beauitful lights in the morning, or accompany you to sleep, you can try the Timing function. Setting the timer for when they turn on or off.
The bed
As I was wanting the asetics to work into adolescence, I wanted our son to have a larger bed than a single. I grew up on having a bunk bed until I was 18. Having a single bed isn’t a problem, it’s just something we choose to change. Choosing a queen size bed or small double instead of a double or a king can be the next best thing. Especially in smaller bedrooms. Small doubles are only an extra 30cm wider than a Single. However, that extra width can be a lot more comfortable for a growing teen as they merge into Adult-hood. It’s also double the storage power underneath.
We went with the silent night divan [ad] Miracoil zoned spring system, body moulding memory foam. It is so comfortable its a wonder my teen ever gets out of bed. We chose not to purchase the headboard, as this can push a bed a few foot from the wall. So with that in mind I’m using a wall mounted headboard – when I find the right one. At the moment he doesn’t have one at all. When I said the space was almost complete I wasn’t kidding.
Multi use furniture
As I have mentioned before on the blog. Using multi use furniture is a great way to save space in a room that is lacking in – well space. My sons room is on the tight side when it come to square footage. I used a Queen size divan with storage underneath to hide his clutter. We doubled his wardrobe space as a vanity area, by using the NORDMELA wardrobe from Ikea. This clothing storage is fantastic, and covers every clothing storage needs. It comes with five deep draws for folding clothing and a bonus open hanging space.
As the open hanging space is on show I went with matching hangers. I always use matching hangers for all my wardrobes and this open storage was no different. I went with walnut hanging I found on Amazon to bring a traditional masculine touch. The wood tone also creates warmth and contrast to the blue tones in the paint work and wardrobe itself, which I personally think works really well. The midi height of the wardrobe, means we could use the top space as a vanity area. Giving him a place to store a mirror, jewellery and those lotions and potions to make a teen smell nice.
Adding interest
It always surprises me how warm and effective adding interest to the walls or ceiling can make a space feel. Our sons room isn’t on the grand size and the proportion is square. Square rooms are a great usable space. However, square can also be quite boring and plain. This room has no coving or for my American friends, moulding detail around the ceilings. The lack of detail made the room feel boxed and closed in.
Normally I would make a focal point in the bedroom by using the bed. However, I decided to use the wood veneer acoustic panelling [ad] and create a t.v feature wall. Im so glad I did, I absolutely love them. The accoustic panelling isn’t just used as a focal or interest element in the design. Choosing a tv feature wall enabled me to space save by hanging the tv on the wall. And as the panels are acoustic, they help with that all important noise factor, absorbing the loud sound from my sons t.v. Yes mums, the acoustic panels really do help silence the bellowing sounds from the playstation, and even my teens questionable music.
I know alot of people have created this look by just glueing wooden batons to the wall. However, I choose the trend lead ready made panels in a box because of how beautiful they look. I have used them before in our master bedroom and I would use them again in other areas or projects. The craftsmanship of these panels give a professional finish for any DIY novice. The convienvience of them already made and simple design to attach to the wall means no stress or mess!
The television wall
As we were hanging the tv on the wall, we added a few new sockets. We payed a little extra and went with black, however, as they are hidden behind the tv we realised we could of gone for the standard white plastic. Neather – the – less they look fab and i think if we had used white plastic I probably would of regret it.
I have said this before on the blog and over on my instagram, I hate wires showing. We had them hidden in the cinema room so we decided to go extra and hide them in our sons room too. Some people may think this is boujee thing to do in a Childs bedroom. However, I feel it’s been worth it. The safety aspect of no wires around for children to play with and it looks so much more neater is definitely worth the extra effort.
Our electrician channeled into the plaster so we could hide the wires. He installed a double socket and a HDMI brush plate. This would allow, once the tv was positioned on the wall for our sons games console and other media devices to be connected to the tv with no wires in sight. The wood veneer panels then became an ingenious way of disguising the hole the electrical made to Chanel the wiring without having to plaster over them. And having screwed them means we can get to the wires behind with ease if needs be.
I am just in love with these panels. Whats special about the wood veneer hub is there saucing of materials and colours for this trend lead panelling. We already use the walnut in our master bedroom. In our sons room I went with the midnight blue. The colour is beautiful. It is the perfect match to the feature wall I painted in Farrow&ball Hauge blue. This gives a seamless illusion of a continuous coloured wall with the added texture of the panels to zone the tv in its own featured place.
The little extras
Other than the panels, another feature and inexpensive thing to do is the game console pad storage, We just used a few plastic coated tool wall hooks which cost 99p from a local hardware store and the multiple pads our son owns hang nicely on the wall. Brilliant for storage and filling an empty space on the wall. In some ways it’s like a piece of scupltured art and again another cool addition to the gamer theme. Check out ow we did it by watching my youtube video.
We also added a floating media unit. Originally we were just going to install a floating shelf. Instead we opted for this black open storage unit.[ad] It easily stored the console unit, with the added bonus of hidden shelving to store books and game console games.
I am obsessed, how this room has turned out! It has definitely exceeded my expectations. Although I was hesitant to use led strip lighting when my son asked around the whole of his room ceiling, the compromise has turned out well and really adds to that gamer feel vibe.
This space will grow as he does with the modern contemporary touches like the wooden panelling,[ad] and the classic colour pallet from farrow&ball [ad] brings everything together. There is still aspects of the room that isn’t complete, like a mirror, headboard and bedside table. Im looking for walnut bedside tables to match the hangers in the open storage and the darker tone wood will create warmth and ground the space around the bed. But until I find the perfect size to fit the space, my is left to enjoy his teen hangout. The downside is we’ve made his room feel so good he won’t come out.
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